There has been a lot of interest in using digital cameras for cinematography. One problem with the digital cameras is that there is a minimum readout time associated with an imager (e.g., CCD). Hence, there is a limit to how fast a digital camera can record a sequence of images at higher resolutions and/or color depths. Therefore, there is a need for a digital cinema camera that can be used for making movies at a higher resolution and/or color depths than current hardware can support. By way of example, for slow motion video, from 48 frames per second (fps) to about 500 fps can be filmed easily using conventional film emulsion. Current technology imagers generally cannot support such high speed “filming” at the desired resolution. Further, an advanced digital cinema camera should also support recording images at variable speed and/or resolution.
Another factor that should be considered when using digital cameras for movie making is the amount of memory required to store image data, and the time it takes to read the image data from the memory for storage or for downsizing them to view as a lower resolution image. If the amount of data storage is limited to the memory available on the digital camera, the duration of high speed recording of images would be very short.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a digital cinema camera system that can support recording images at variable speed, high resolution and high color depth, while simultaneously downsizing and storing the image stream for viewing at a lower resolution.